Generally, when bonding together a first plate-like member such as a liquid crystal panel or a touch panel and a second plate-like member such as a glass cover to protect the surface of the first plate-like member, it is crucial to prevent entrapment of air bubbles between the first and second plate-like members. Entrapped air bubbles lead to lower display quality and cause separation of plate-like members.
Known bonding apparatuses that are able to prevent entrapment of air bubbles perform bonding in vacuum. In a bonding apparatus of this type, before the bonding, a first and second plate-like members are introduced into a vacuum chamber and then an evacuation is performed. After the bonding is finished, the vacuum is broken and the first and second plate-like members are taken out. However, such a bonding apparatus would need a large-scale vacuum chamber and the like, and had low productivity because of the necessity to perform an evacuation every time bonding was performed.
Patent Document 1, for example, describes a conventional bonding apparatus that resolves the problem described above. In this bonding apparatus 300, as shown in FIG. 9, a first plate-like member 100 is held by suction with a plurality of suction nozzles 302 on the lower surface of a table 301, while a second plate-like member 200 is held by suction with suction nozzles 304 of a plurality of suction members 303 arranged along a horizontal direction. The first plate-like member 100 and the second plate-like member 200 are set opposite each other at a predetermined distance before the bonding.
Bonding is achieved in this bonding apparatus 300 by pressing the second plate-like member 200 against the first plate-like member 100 with a bonding roller 305 and moving the bonding roller 305 in the direction of the arrow in the drawing. As shown in FIG. 9, the suction members 303 that are in the way of the moving bonding roller 305 retract one by one as the bonding roller 305 moves. The suction members 303 keep holding a part of the second plate-like member 200 that is not bonded yet and spaced apart from the first plate-like member 100. Therefore, the second plate-like member 200 is deflected as it is bonded to the first plate-like member 100.
The bonding apparatus 300 is capable of preventing air entrapment between the plate-likemembers, since the bonding roller 305 pushes out air bubbles as the first plate-like member 100 and the second plate-like member 200 are bonded together. Moreover, the apparatus 300 does not require a large-scale vacuum chamber or the like.